[FreedomStar3028]

You aren’t even trying. I’m not closed minded and stubborn enough to admit I’m wrong. You aren’t willing to try, which means you cannot teach me. Telling me I’m wrong isn’t going to change my mind.

You can pray to Mary all you want, but she can’t hear you. She is not God. Pray to Jesus for me instead. Please.

“I am the way, the truth, the life.” - Jesus (not Mary)
“The only way to the Father is through me.” - Jesus (not Mary)

I’m afraid you are the one that has been lied to FRiend. I do not LOVE LIES. But show me evidence and I will gladly reconsider. The Bible is a source I consider legitimate. If I am missing something, inform me. Or do Catholics not teach their faith? It will take a lot more then insults to change years of perspective. But my mind is fertile, plant a seed.

[Ann Archy]

Ok fertile mind....why don't Protestants have Holy Communion, the Body and Blood of Christ, not as a Symbol, but the ACTUAL Body and Blood, when Jesus told us Himself "To Take and Eat, this is MY BODY.....Take and Drink, this is MY BLOOD". Jesus gave this power to the Apostles....one being the first Pope....so that the Priesthood was established.

What about Jesus saying to the Apostles "whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven"??

Have to continue later....going to dentist.

[Ann Archy]

You said to pray to Jesus for you.....all we do is replace ourselves with Mary......we ask the MOTHER of Jesus to ask Jesus for something we need, all the while praying to Jesus directly ourselves.

You have a chance to get to heaven because you've been baptized a Christian, but not sure that Jesus really likes His MOTHER being dissed so much.

[St_Thomas_Aquinas]

-- But show me evidence and I will gladly reconsider. The Bible is a source I consider legitimate.---

The Bible is certainly legititate, but so is Sacred Tradition, as St. Paul says. Yes, Scripture is profitable, equipping the man of God for every good work, and the book of John was written to help bring us to faith in Christ, but these passages do not equate to Luther's doctine of "the Bible as the sole or ultimate rule of faith."

Regardless, playing by Luther's rule, the Bible shows the saints in heaven offering the prayers of the saints on earth to God.

And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.

If the saints in heaven receive our prayers, then certainly Mary can, since she is the Queen of Heaven.

We know this because Jesus is the King of Heaven, and the King of the eternal, redeemed Davidic Kingdom.

The words of the holy one, the true one, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, who shuts and no one opens.

Historically, the Gebirah, Queen Mother, or the mother of the Davidic king, held an exalted position, sitting at the right hand of the king.

Then Bathsheba went to King Solomon to speak to him for Adonijah, and the king stood up to meet her and paid her homage. Then he sat down upon his throne, and a throne was provided for the king’s mother, who sat at his right hand.

Since Jesus is the King of the eternal, redeemed Davidic Kingdom, Mary is the Queen Mother of this Kingdom.

This explains the image of Mary in the Book of Revelation.

A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman* clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.

She was with child and wailed aloud in pain as she labored to give birth.*

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Consider also that the Jews pray for the dead to this day, as they did in Jesus' time.

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This historical practice is recorded in 2 Macabbees, a book that motivated Luther to remove it from the canon.